Walter Finch
MASKED assassins executed two notorious crime bosses outside a packed Fuengirola pub as terrified holidaymakers tried to flee.
The two high-ranking Scottish gangsters were professionally executed just after 11.30pm on Saturday night – moments after watching Paris Saint-Germain thrash Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final.
Feared Glasgow underworld figures Ross Monaghan, 43, and Eddie Lyons Jnr, 46, of the Lyons crime family were sitting outside Monaghan’s Irish Bar – owned by Monaghan – when the hooded hitmen gunned them down.
A third person sitting at the table was also hit in the hail of bullets but survived the injuries.
The brazen Mafia-style hit has sent shockwaves through the local community and abroad internationally, triggering fears of a vicious gang war on the Costa del Sol not seen since the days of the Kinahans.
Terrified eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos as families with children fled the seafront area in panic.
“I thought that just like them, they were going to kill me too,” a retired neighbour who witnessed the shooting told local newspaper Malaga Hoy.
The pensioner, who lives metres from the scene, initially mistook the gunshots for fireworks: “It sounded like rockets, but they weren’t rockets, you could see it was from a shooting – it went ‘bang, bang, bang, bang!'”
Xiaowei, who owns a bazaar next to the pub, was unloading merchandise when the horror unfolded: “It was around 11.30pm when suddenly I heard a noise in the bar. I looked out and saw a guy pointing something and he fired.”
“Suddenly everyone came running out of the bar. A family walking by hid in my shop, just like me. I called the police from there and we stayed hidden until they arrived.”
The shopkeeper admitted being in shock: “I didn’t look at his face, or whether he was on a motorbike or in a car. I only remember seeing the weapon. I was in shock, I didn’t know how to react.”
Isabel Aribas, working at the Martín Playa beach bar opposite the Irish pub, initially thought the first shots were vehicle backfires.
“But then we heard more shots and everyone came running towards us. Families started coming in with their children, and we all crouched down.
“When you see everyone running, you think: ‘Well, those are gunshots.’ We were absolutely terrified. I was very frightened personally.”
She heard four or five shots in total before customers fled her establishment in terror.
According to Spanish police sources, a hooded gunman jumped from a vehicle and opened fire on the two men at point-blank range before escaping with an accomplice.
Both victims died from chest and abdominal wounds, while a third person was reportedly injured.
Malaga’s deputy government delegate Javier Salas confirmed both dead men were British citizens of Scottish origin.
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High level sources have told the Olive Press that a Scottish gang war between rival crime families the Daniels and the Lyons has been raging for years.
But the horrific hit came after it was ordered at a summit of rival gang members in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, just days earlier, according to The Scottish Sun.
The Daniel crime family along with associates of jailed cocaine kingpin Mark Richardson allegedly plotted to eliminate the pair.
“The hitman got his orders after the meeting to take them both out,” a gangland insider told The Scottish Sun. “They knew that Monaghan and Lyons were a bit complacent and could be got at.”
The killings represent a deadly escalation in Scotland’s savage gang conflict, which has now gone international.
The violence stems from claims that Dubai-based former Rangers ultra Ross ‘Miami’ McGill was conned out of £500,000 in a cocaine deal involving fake banknotes.
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McGill, 31, has been blamed for triggering weeks of retaliatory attacks across Scotland through a group called Tamu Junto, leading to over 40 arrests under Police Scotland’s Operation Portaledge.
Sources claim Steven Lyons, 44, was the intended primary target but escaped death as he was flying from Dubai to Spain when the assassins struck.
Spain-based Eddie Lyons Jnr had recently returned to Scotland for his 16-year-old daughter’s funeral after she died from long-term health problems.
Family sources said he appeared worried and told relatives he didn’t feel safe enough to return to Scotland permanently.
Meanwhile, the Lyons have been named as associates of notorious Irish mobsters the Kinahan cartel, who were the last mafia group to reign bloody mayhem on the Costa del Sol a decade ago.
Gangland experts predict the double execution will trigger a new wave of violence in both Scotland, Spain and beyond.
“This is going to cause an all-out war,” warned one underworld source.
“Whether it’s linked to the ongoing Scottish feud or another dispute, this is bound to lead to further violence.”
Ross Monaghan was previously acquitted of murder charges and had been running the Irish bar where he met his death, though sources say his name doesn’t appear on any official documents.
Spanish police set up roadblocks across the Costa del Sol hunting the killers but no arrests have been made. The investigation continues with authorities treating it as a drugs-related settling of scores.
